Worm shaft problem : powermatic 60HH jointer

[Gregg Feldstone]

Just picked up this jointer used in very good condition. I’ve never had a jointer with a lever to move the bed.
I can make rapid gross adjustments by pulling up and down but turning the shaft does nothing. The manual states turning the worm shaft will make “fine adjustments “ to the infeed bed hight. I even bypassed the cheap plastic knob and put a wrench on it without forcing anything…still nothing.

Is my interpretation correct? If so, is it likely something is is stripped or not engaging?

I feel like the worm shaft and its plastic handle are not even equipped to create enough torque to move the bed. All that happens is the shaft goes up or down as it is turned…not the bed.

[Rush Paul]

I don't think you're missing anything. We have a 60HH in our community shop with the same problem. We got it set to take a 1/32" cut and left it there. It does work very well and very accurately. But this lack of easy adjustment is frustrating. I'd love to hear from someone who found how to solve this.

[mike stenson]

if the lock knob is not engaged, it'll just move.

[Rush Paul]

if the lock knob is not engaged, it'll just move.

One would think so, and I presume on other units it does, but not ours. In our case, the wing simply crashed down to the travel stop post and refused to budge. After some extensive persuasion, we did get it to move to that 1/32nd inch point and we decided to leave it there. We certainly could not get any "easy" movement across the mating surfaces. I've been hesitant to mess with it ever since.

All of which makes me wish we'd opted to spend the additional money for the parallelogram model.